Kiyomine Haruka and Kaname Kei are a peculiar pitcher-catcher duo. Haruka's incredibly fast, precise and consistent pitching makes him a a double-edged sword, as while he can easily overwhelm the majority of batters, only a particularly good catcher could possibly bring out the full potential of Haruka's pitching. Thankfully, his Childhood Friend Kaname Kei, with whom he trained baseball for years, is just the kind of genius needed to complement Haruka's mighty pitches. The duo proceed to crush one team after another with little to no difficulty. The two are wanted by all major private schools, including the illustrious Teitoku. Surely, their future careers in baseball are guaranteed.
And then Kei ends up loosing his memories in a traffic accident.
Yamada Taro enters Kotesashi High School, a low-profile public school, somber about the lackluster potential of the school's baseball team. Much to his shock, the superstar Kiyomine-Kaname battery has entered the same public school without a hint of irony. However, while Haruka is the same stoical Consummate Professional as before, Kei has not only lost all his memories, but also regressed mentally, having become a whiny Kiddie Kid in the process who wants to have nothing to do with baseball. As it turns out, baseball training was the very thing that instilled a sense of discipline into him that was washed away along with his memories.
By sheer coincidence, two other gifted baseball players who were previously crushed by the Kiyomine-Kaname battery, Second Baseman Chihaya Shunpei and Shortstop Todo Aoi have likewise decided to attend the same public school in an effort to cut ties with baseball, even though both of them subconsciously display subtle habits that contradicts their stated desire to abandon the sport. Furthermore, while still whiny, Kei also shows signs of slowly regaining his edge. With further encouragement by Yamada, the odd ensemble slowly begins to form an unlikely baseball team...
Oblivion Battery (also known as Boukyaku Battery) is a baseball manga series illustrated and written by Eko Mikawa. Its serialization began on Shueisha's online manga app Shōnen Jump+. An Animated Adaptation produced by MAPPA premiered in April 2024.
Tropes featured in Oblivion Battery:
- All Men Are Perverts: Haruka's default carrot for keeping the more lackadaisical first years in the baseball team motivated is bribing them with his older brother's extensive Porn Stash.
- Affectionate Parody: Of the common tropes found in Gaming and Sports Anime & Manga as a whole, with some nods to Ace of the Diamond in particular.
- Big Guy: Haruka and Aoi are the tallest and physically strongest members of their team.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Parodied. Kei's mother is initially presented as a lively middle-aged lady, before abruptly collectively virgin-shaming the first-years with utter glee.
- Expy: Haruka is one for Furuya Satoru. Like Furuya, he is an aloof Tall, Dark, and Handsome genius pitcher specializing in powerful strikes and a Sore Loser. However:
- Deconstructed Character Archetype: whereas Furuya was basically a diamond in the rough who had little proper training in childhood and had to learn most of the rules of the game relatively late and had no friends his age in his hometown, Haruka was properly trained since childhood and formed a reliable battery duo with his Childhood Friend Kei, with the result being that Haruka is a lot more disciplined, thus avoiding developing Furuya's Overdrive tendencies.
- Even the Guys Want Him: Kokuto is greatly admired by his team mates in the Teitoku High School, with some fawning over him with heart-shaped eyes while taking photos of him.
- Fangirl: Parodied and Gender-Inverted with the Teitoku coach. He absolutely adores his team and responds incredibly enthusiastically to their accomplishments (especially Kokuto), barely being able to keep his cool while directly talking with them. He is also prone to making heart-shaped gestures.
- Fitness Nut: Haruka uses most of his free time exercising, including lunch break.
- Hard Work Hardly Works:
- Averted. Kei Kaname became the renowned catcher thanks to a lot of hard work and dedication. Post-amnesia, the main problem is getting him to regain his work ethic.
- All the other prominent players are likewise noted to have worked hard to get where they are now and further improve their skills.
- Lascivious Beauty Mark: Kei has a mole beneath his left eye and is the most openly Hormone-Addled Teenager among the main cast.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: The plot is kick-started by Kei abruptly loosing his memories of baseball.
- Not So Above It All:
- As much as Shunpei tries to act cool-headed, he is just as easily swayed by Kiyomine's older brother's Porn Stash as Kei and Aoi.
- Haruka tries to keep the demeanor of the aloof, invincible genius, yet quickly forms a petty rivalry with Aoi. Also, when someone does menage to hit his powerful pitches, he is noticeably irritated.
- Ridiculously Average Guy: Poor Taro is so average-looking that Kei could instantly surmise that his family name is the generic last name Yamada just by glancing at him.
- Running Gag:
- Kei post-amnesia has a tendency of Suddenly Shouting 'NIPPLE HAIR!', with most characters being understandably baffled by the Non Sequitur.
- The Teitoku coach's fangirling.
- Haruka's older brother's large Porn Stash.
- Shout-Out:
- Kei briefly undergoes a Super Saiyan transformation upon being provoked by his mother's trolling.
- During the Wake-Up Call Boss match against Teitoku, Kei ends up replicating Yamcha's infamous death pose, just to hammer in how badly he is handling the situation.
- Strong and Skilled: Kiyomine Haruka's pitches are as frighteningly strong as they are accurate and consistent.
- Tragic Dream: Played for Laughs. Teitoku's coach had a dream team list of promising genius first year players in his head, consisting of Kokuto, Kei, Aoi, Haruka and Chihaya, which would guarantee Teitoku's dominance. He ONLY menages to get Kokuto in. And then, to rub salt on the wound, he learns that the other four ended up in same mediocre public school. To say he took the news badly would be a massive understatement.
